Home

sick cichlid's

Mon, 08/02/2010 - 20:15 — krissymarie

Sigh... one of my Cichlid's has big black patches all over it and on it's fins etc.  I had a sick tank before and treated it, changed the water out and now 'something' is back.  I've done the parasite clear treatment, the melafix etc.  Somehow I cant get healthy fish back.  If this continues they will die.  Any suggestions?

Comments

Fri, 08/06/2010 - 08:56 — shaz

re black spot

type in "black spot" in our search box, you will find lots of causes and tips, if my fish had black spot, i would do a 15% water change every other day,until it had gone, then look to improving water quality, just because it looks clean doesn't mean its right,you can cause more damage by adding meds when all that is needed are these water changes,of course, shops don't make any money by advising you to do water changes,its they job to sell products, I almost sure that's your problem

Thu, 08/05/2010 - 06:24 — cindy97

Awww

Hope your fish gets better! =)

Wed, 08/04/2010 - 14:02 — krissymarie

Thanks

Hey everyone..... I sooo appreciate your advice. I stopped treating with the harsh stuff (parasite clear and no ick), completely changed the rocks (as someone said parasites could be hanging out in them) and did a water change. They looked so stressed after I did it. I put some stress coat in the tank and left it. I thought I'd come in to my office and find dead fish today.

Nope. They are losing their black patches and are swimming all over the place. Seem to be happy, hungry fish!

I had been following the advice of our pet store and I think I was killing them with treatments. Thanks for the advice. They seem to be happy fish again. (and that makes me a happy owner because everyone loves my parrot cichlids. I had all sorts of staff and students stressed about the fish. LOL)

My advice to anyone else....try natural / less harsh treatments first. That seems to do the trick for me at least.

Wed, 08/04/2010 - 08:06 — Chrisplosion

You shouldn't be treating

You shouldn't be treating if you don't know what it is. The treatments might be contributing to the stress. Blood Parrots get black spots/patches when they get stressed. It doesn't necessarily mean they are sick it just means something is stressing them. Like if the water gets to bad they could get stress, trying to breed, picked on, new fish, anything really. Every so often one of mine will gets some spots but they go away after a week. One of mine has ick and that is giving him stress spots but that doesn't mean yours does. You should raise the temp and add salt but no other chemicals. Check your ammonia nitrites and nitrates. Ammonia and nitrites should be 0 and Nitrates should be under 40. poor water quality is one of the bigger stress inducers.

Wed, 08/04/2010 - 06:34 — v_2rahjo

do a 50% water change. Raise

do a 50% water change. Raise your temp to 80 F. add a little salt in small intervals to get rid of some infection... change the tank if your suspect that to be an issue.

Got any photos of the fish?

see if this helps